I decided to create this blog to chronicle my time in Taipei on a NSF Fellowship. It is important to note that the ideas expressed in this blog are my own and do not reflect the opinions or policies of the NSF, Northeastern University (my home institution) or National Taiwan University (my host institution).

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Bike ride/beach trip

I am on an island in the middle of the Pacific, but it took me 3 weeks to finally make it to the beach. Another fellow, Mylene, mentioned she was going and I decided to tag along. She was taking the subway to the end of the line to catch a bus. I decided to ride to the end of the line and meet up with her. I ended up riding about 17 miles along a nice river path. I did not have to deal with automobile traffic once because the path actually went under every road. It was nice... until it wasn't. It turns out there is a tributary that bisects the bike path without a bridge over it! I was about 3 miles away from the station when I realized this

So, I ditched my bike at a station and took the subway the rest of the way. Here is a link to my route:

http://goo.gl/maps/qTU5g

Here is my bike

It may not be the best angle for this, but note my bike seat is a few inches higher than everyone else's

So, I made it to the station and met up with Mylene. We then proceeded to ride a bus for an hour to the beach. Here Mylene is on our rented mat

We only spent a couple hours there before we had to turn around. I wanted to catch a beer fest near my apartment. Here are a couple Harley's passing us while on the bus

I then retrieved my bike and began the ride home. About a mile away from my apartment, my bike chain gets hopelessly lodged between my wheel and gears and I had to walk home (which is why there aren't more pictures of this really awesome ride)

I then showered and met up with everyone for the beer festival....and then we came across a woman walking a parrot.